Share markets in India are presently trading marginally higher.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 227 points, up 0.4%, at 52,670 levels.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading up by 79 points

Hindalco and Tata Steel are among the top gainers today. Maruti Suzuki and Cipla are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.2%.

The BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.9%.

On the sectoral front, stocks from the metal sector are witnessing most of the buying interest.

On the other hand, stocks from the power sector are witnessing most of the selling pressure.

US stock futures are trading mixed today.

Nasdaq Futures are trading down by 8 points (down 0.1%) while Dow Futures are trading up by 90 points (up 0.3%).

The rupee is trading at 74.26 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up 0.8% at Rs 47,960 per 10 grams.

In domestic markets, gold prices were trading higher following a positive trend in international spot prices after the US Federal Reserve failed to give a timeline for its tapering plans.

On MCX, gold futures were trading 0.4% higher at Rs 47,764 for 10 grams.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Among the buzzing stocks, today is Tata Motors.

Shares of Tata Motors rose as much as 3.8% on the exchanges in intraday today after the company said it is planning to increase prices of its passenger vehicles from next week as it aims to offset the steep rise in procurement cost of essential materials such as steel.

The quantum of the price hike was not indicated by the auto-maker.

Tata Motors President Passenger Vehicles Business Unit (PVBU) Shailesh Chandra said,

• We have seen a very steep increase in the prices of steel and precious metals over the last year. The financial impact of the increase in commodity prices is in the range of 8-8.5% of our revenues.

He noted that the company has been able to pass on only a small part of the increase in input costs to the customers so far.

It has been able to mitigate some of the impact of rising input costs by running various cost reduction initiatives as it wanted to avoid passing on a big quantum of price hikes to customers.

Earlier this month, the country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki hiked prices of its hatchback Swift and CNG variants of other models by up to Rs 15,000 to counter the increase in input costs.

Similarly, Honda has also announced to increase prices of its entire model range in India from August, as it looks to offset the impact of an increase in commodity prices.

We will keep you posted on more updates from this space. Stay tuned.

At the time of writing, Tata Motors shares were trading up by 2.9% on the BSE.

Moving on to news from the IPO space...

Windlass Biotech IPO to Open On 4 August 2021

The initial public offering (IPO) of Windlass Biotech will hit the primary market on 4 August 2021. The price band for the same has been fixed at Rs 448-460 per share with a face value of Rs 5 each.

Dehradun-based Windlass Biotech is one of the top companies in the domestic pharmaceutical formulations contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) in India.

Windlass Biotech will raise Rs 1.7 bn through the issuance of fresh equity shares, while promoters and existing shareholders will offload 5.1 m equity shares via an offer for sale (OFS).

Investors participating in the OFS include promoter Vimla Windlass (1.4 m equity shares) and Tano India Private Equity Fund II (4.1 equity shares). Tano India Private Equity Fund will exit the company by selling its entire 22% stake.

Investors can bid for a minimum of 30 equity shares and in multiples of 30 shares thereafter. The issue closes on 6 August for a subscription.

50% of the net issue is reserved for qualified institutional buyers (QIBs), whereas a 15% stake will be allotted to non-institutional investors (NIIs). Retail investors will have 35% of the issue size earmarked for them.

The net proceeds from the fresh equity issue will be utilized for the purchase of equipment required for capacity expansion of the existing facility at Dehradun Plant, repaying of certain borrowings, and working capital requirements.

SBI Capital Markets, DAM Capital Advisors, and IIFL Securities have been appointed as book-running lead managers (BRLMs) of the issue. Link Intime India is the registrar of the issue.

How the IPO sails through remains to be seen. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more updates from this space.

Speaking of the current stock market scenario, note that the BSE smallcap index has surged 188% since the crash in March 2020.

Despite the index being up more than 1.8 times, Richa Agarwal, lead Smallcap Analyst at Equitymaster, believes smallcap stocks are set for a massive up move in 2021 and beyond.

Here's why...

The 188% gain in the smallcap index in the current rebound is way short of almost 300% gains in the last two rebound cycles.

The Smallcap to Sensex ratio, a metric I often refer to get a sense of relative valuations, currently stands at 0.49 times. To be sure, this is higher than a median of 0.43 times.

And yet, it's the lowest of all the peaks in the small caps so far. In the last cycle which peaked in January 2018, when the ratio touched 0.49, the peak was still 9 months away.

As per Richa, small caps are a great opportunity to make some big returns. But you need to stay disciplined when it comes to allocating money. And you need to be sharp when picking the right stocks.

If you get these two things right, small caps will work wonders for you.